Bodine wins truck race at Daytona

Speedweeks - NextEra Energy Resources 250

February 14, 2009|By Andrea Adelson, Sentinel Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- Todd Bodine sure knows his way around a superspeedway. Maybe that will get him a sponsor.

Bodine won the NextEra Energy Resources 250 NASCAR truck race on Friday night, overcoming an early black flag to win here for the second year in a row. The result shouldn't be too surprising -- Bodine has now won four straight at superspeedways.

He also becomes the first two-time winner of the Daytona truck race.

Bodine started the season without a sponsor, after Lumber Liquidators decided to end its sponsorship in December. He plans on racing next week in California but has no idea how many events he can go without a sponsor.

"It takes a lot of money to run these trucks," Bodine said. "To come out of your own pocket is hard. I guess you could say it's dire straits. We've got to get a sponsor to continue for the entire season."

Bodine has been through this before. In 2003, he won a Busch Series race without a sponsor at Darlington for Herzog-Jackson. His team was leading in the points race but was forced to shut down.

He had to overcome his share of adversity on the track Friday to win.

Kyle Busch, competing in all three races at Daytona, tried to push Bodine out of the way on the final lap. But he ended up scraping the back of Bodine's truck and fell behind, losing momentum.

"I screwed up once again," Busch said. "The plan was to knock Todd out of the way. It didn't work, though. All it did was shoot him further ahead. I'm frustrated at myself for not figuring this out yet."

Bodine was black flagged early in the race, when he went below the yellow line to pass Colin Braun. Bodine said he went below the line in order to avoid wrecking Braun. He also caused a major wreck on lap 48 when he clipped the left rear of rookie James Buescher's truck.

Buescher ran into Ron Hornaday Jr.'s truck and spun out of control, causing a chain reaction that took out series champion Johnny Benson, motocross star Ricky Carmichael and Johnny Sauter, among others.

Bodine took the blame for the accident, saying he was scared of going below the yellow line when he clipped Buescher.

The top three trucks were Toyotas. Terry Cook finished third, while Canadian teenager J.R. Fitzpatrick was fourth and Hornaday Jr. finished fifth. Braun finished ninth. When asked for the secret to his success at superspeedways, Bodine said, "It's the truck. I was watching [other] trucks bounce and go sideways. I sat there like I had a Cadillac."